elizabeth tuttle - eugenics in our family history

Fighting fascism one generation at a time

Sharing how the history of eugenics threads through my family history.

“In a series of Dickensian twists I ended up semi-incarcerated on Hart Island off the Bronx coast, in the waters of Pelham Bay. That’s where the Phoenix House facility that I was placed in was located. A long term drug rehab program, though I was not a drug addict. It was roughly 12 miles, as the crow flies, from where I grew up on 57th Street to the island, but it was like being in another country. A small and isolated piece of land, with a rough and tumble history, lying in the waters of the Long Island Sound, Hart Island became my home for almost 2 years.

Though my team and I are not historians, we have tried our best to remain true and accurate throughout this post.”- Ellen Kaye

The History

Hart Island circa 1864

Map With Hart Island

In the days when I lived in the Bronx I didn’t know my ancestors had settled there hundreds of years ago. What would my 14 year old self have thought of that? It might have been a real source of strength. Maybe a kind of coming home. A new adventure inside some very old footsteps.

Haunted Hart Island

“Strangely enough I lived on Hart Island”-Interview - Ellen Kaye

“How I got on Hart Island” - Interview - Ellen Kaye

“An Old Bones story of hope & renewal” - Interview - Ellen Kaye

Old Bones Odyssey -The Album

Pictures from our Old Bones stories below

The RTR

The Russian Tea Room. Sidney Kaye, Faith Stewart-Gordon, Sidney Poitier, Faith with the RTR team, Ellen Kaye, Dudley Moore, Armand Assante, Natasha Kinski.

Kaye, Peerce, Williams, Oldin, Halpern, Goldberg

Family gathering 1970s.

Hart Island Map

A map detail off the Bronx coast.

Sidney Kaye at The RTR

My father having a photo taken for a Russian Tea Room ad campaign.

George Frederick Tuttle

Author of The Descendants Of William And Elizabeth Tuttle, published 1883. Family genealogist on the Courtney line.

Faith Stewart-Gordon In Front Of The RTR

My mother outside the Russan Tea Room.

Phoenix House

Phoenix House buildings on in decay on Hart Island.

The Descendants Of William And Elizabeth Tuttle

Title page. The Descendants Of William And Elizabeth Tuttle by George Frederick Tuttle. Published 1883. A History of Ellen’s maternal ancestors who emigrated from England to America in 1635 on a ship called the Planter.

Sidney Kaye with Sidney Poitier

My Dad with his good friend, talking, relaxing for a moment in the RTR dining room. Circa 1960s.

The Thermopylae

By Montague Dawson - 1868.

Kim Tsang with John Tsang

Kim being held by his father John. Long Island, NY. Circa 1960.

Potters Field Headstone

Hart Island, New York

Lloyd Williams

b. 1932. d. 2020. Fashion designer.

Sidney Kalmanowitz Kaye

WWII

Ellen Kaye - Missing Persons Poster

1974

The RTR

I always loved the way it looked like it's own odd little foreign embassy. The Russian Tea Room.

Faith Burwell Kaye Stewart-Gordon

The 1950s.

Jan Peerce

Signed photo by Jan Peerce- 1958. b. Jacob Pincus Perelmuth in 1904 in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York. d.1984, New Rochelle, New York. Jan was a famous cantor and opera singer, known as Toscanini’s favorite tenor. He starred in “Fiddler on the Roof” on Broadway as Tevye. His recording of “The Bluebird of Happiness”, which was written for him, became his signature tune and became a worldwide hit. He was the first American Jew to sing behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union. He is credited with inspiring the launching of the Soviet Jewry Movement. Ellen's paternal uncle, married to her aunt Alice Kalmanowitz, her father Sidney's sister.

Record Of The Burwell Family

Title page. Published 1908.

Andrew Willet

b.1562 d.1621. He was an English clergyman and controversialist. A prolific writer, he is known for his anti-papal works. His views were Calvinist, conforming and non-separatist, and he appeared as a witness against Edward Dering before the Star-chamber. Ellen’s maternal ancestor.

Sidney Kaye

1950s.

Phoenix House Building.

Decaying Phoenix House buildong. Hart Island, New York.

A Ruble

1898 Czarist currency from the Russian empire. Passed down on the Kalmanovitch-Kalmanowitz-Kaye line.

Thomas Willett

b. 1604 d. 1674 First and third Mayor of New York City. Ellen’s maternal ancestor.

Kim Tsang

Wedding day -1992. Bell Cafe, Spring Street, NYC.

Hart Island

Civil War. 1865.

Cruz Alejandrina Defanti

Cruz Defanti emigrated from Chile to New York City. She raised Ellen till she was seven.

Hart Island

Prisoners burying the dead. Hart Island, New York.

Lloyd Williams Fashion Sketch

Greenwich Village fashion sketches by Lloyd Williams.

Marinus Willett

b. 1740 Jamaica, Queens. d. 1830 Buried in Trinity Church, New York City. Revolutionary Soldier. British America. New York Militia. Continental Army. 1st, 3rd and 5th New York Regiment. 48th Mayor of New York City. Ellen’s maternal ancestor.

One Potato, Two Potato

"One Potato, Two Potato" was a ground breaking film directed by my cousin Larry Peerce. Barbara Barrie and Bernie Hamilton starred in it. My mother had a part in it. She was a talented actor who had been discovered a few years before in "New Faces Of 1952".

Isaak Chertok-Chertoff

A Russian who emigrated via Tokyo to Istanbul to Israel until the beginning of WWII and finally to New York City. He was a Russian intellectual, Japanese scholar, an engineer who helped design the Trans-Siberian Railway, diplomat, artist, taught Russian at the US Naval College during WWII and a translator of Chekhov stories. After designing the Soviet Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, he fled Stalin’s purge, having been warned secretly by a visiting Soviet official not to leave the ship he had just boarded, thus leaving his young Japanese love, and his life in Japan, forever and beginning his circuitous emigration to America. Ellen’s cousin on the paternal line.

Andrew Hull Courtney & Mary "Polly" Bowman Courtney

Andrew: b.1837 and d.1909. Mary: b.1836. d.1926. North Carolina. They married in 1860. Andrew fought for the Confederacy and was wounded at Gettysburg. Before his capture by Union soldiers his leg was amputated. Ellen’s maternal ancestors.

"Tuttle Gathering" By Joseph F. Tuttle

1635 William Tuttle Of New Haven, An Address Delivered At The Tuttle Gathering, New Haven, Conn, Sept. 3rd, 1873, By Joseph Tuttle, President of Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind. Title page.

Annie Horowitz Kalmanowitz & Jake Kalmanowitz

Believed to be their wedding photo taken on the Lower East Side, New York City. Married 1906. Ellen’s paternal grandparents.

Map Of Hart Island

City Island Harbor, Long Island Sound, New York. 1884. Hart Island nautical map.

Chertok-Chertoff Family

A mystery photograph. Russia. Ellen's paternal cousins.

Sketch By Lloyd Williams

Male attire by Lloyd Williams. Fashion designer. b.1932 d.2020.

Marinus Willet

Isaak Chertok-Chertoff

Isaak Chertok-Chertoff building the Soviet Embassy in Tokyo in the 1930's under Stalin's rule. Isaak was the architect. Soon he would be purged and have to flee, starting on a long exodus that eventually brought him to New York City.

Jan Peerce

Jan Peerce photographed by Sidney or Faith Kaye on the terrace of their apartment on top of the Osborne, 57th Street, circa 1960. Ellen's paternal uncle, married to her aunt Alice Kalmanowitz, her father Sidney's sister.

George "Buster" Ernest Burwell III

b.1925, South Carolina, d. 1996. Ellen’s naternal uncle.

Maye Kalmanowitz Oldin

Circa 1960s. Ellen's paternal aunt.

View Of Central Park West

View from the Osborne rooftop. Circa 1950s.

Faith & Sidney Kaye

Circa 1950s. Osborne rooftop.

Marshall Marcus Courtney

b.1852 d.1921. Ellen’s great grandfather.

Susan Peerce

Circa 1961.

First Saturday

July 1st, 1899. Burwell family photograph, North Carolina.

Alice Earnhardt Courtney

b.2 April 1859. d.15 Sep 1930. North Carolina.

Burwell Family - WWII

George Ernest Burwell Jr., Faith Burwell Jr., Faith Burwell Sr., George "Buster" Ernest Burwell III.

Lloyd Williams Coming To New York Sketch

Mystery Woman

Photograph from the Burwell family line.

Sketch By Lloyd Williams

Central Park South Construction

Circa 1950s. View from the Osborne rooftop.

Sources And Inspirations

The Hart Island Project
“The Hart Island Project assists families and individuals with limited resources in accessing the history and public information concerning burials on Hart Island, and increases public awareness, through engaged storytelling and creative projects.”